Greater New Orleans

Robust king cake sales are good for the bakery business

King cakes aren't just a New Orleans family tradition, they're big business for local bakeries. And with a slightly longer season between Christmas and Mardi Gras this year compared to last year, business seems to be looking up.

"Without a doubt, this is our busiest time of the year," said Sam Scelfo, president of Gambino's Bakeries Inc. "We sell king cakes year-round and ship out of town, but between Christmas and Mardi Gras is when our production and sales really ramp up."

According to Lauren Laxton at Haydel's Bakery on Jefferson Highway, some bakery customers stick with the Jan. 6 tradition regardless of whether king cakes are available year-round.

"Some of our customers have told us they think it's sacrilegious to buy the cakes before that date, but then they'll come in that day and buy four or five," she said.

This year, with Mardi Gras coming just six weeks after Kings Day, the season is a little longer than last year but shorter than it will be next, when Mardi Gras isn't until March 8.

"The length of the season definitely impacts how many cakes we sell overall," said Scelfo of Gambino's. "It would be nice if we sold the same amount of cakes regardless, but a shorter season means we sell fewer cakes."

Compared to last year, though, bakeries are reporting that this season's sales are up.

"There was only one day when we had a lull in purchases and that was right after New Year's," said Mary Ann Walsh at Laurel Street Bakery, a five-year-old Uptown enterprise. "I think people made a New Year's resolution not to eat sweets but as soon as it was official king cake season, they started buying anyway."

Walsh says the boutique bakery makes only about a dozen cakes a day during the week and perhaps 20 or 30 on the weekend, compared to the thousands made by larger enterprises, but their cakes usually sell out even in tough economic times.

"The way I think about it is that I might be able to afford to buy myself a little treat even if I won't spend the money on a nice dress. I think some of our customers think that way, too," she said.

Thousands and thousands

Antoine's Famous Cakes and Pastries in Gretna is one of the bakeries that literally makes thousands of cakes per day during the peak of the season, according to Greg Antoine. All of the cakes are made on site at the Stumpf Boulevard store, Antoine's original location.

"We make cakes all year-round, but we make more once Christmas holidays are over," he said. "Business is strong right around January 6, then it settles into a rhythm with Fridays being one of the busiest days because people buy the cakes for school and office parties. Once the parades start, then we increase to a 24-hour-a-day baking cycle and make up to 3,500 cakes a day."

Some of Antoine's cakes end up at local Walgreens stores, accounting for the volume produced. Haydel's Bakery reported a strong opening of the season, with sales of between 600 and 1,000 on Jan. 6. According to Scelfo, Gambino's sells 300 to 400 cakes a day on weekdays and 400 to 500 on weekends, with each week's volume increasing a little over the last.

"By the time the season ends, we will have probably made and sold 100,000 king cakes, between our shop sales and our shipped orders," Scelfo said.

Predicting demand, especially for one type of cake over another, is far from an exact science and so sales require constant monitoring.

"We bake every day and so we are able to adjust every day if we need to," said Scelfo. "If praline sells great, for example, we make more the next day, but if it doesn't, then we make less. It can be a little hit or miss."

Laurel Street Bakery, however, has devised a strategy for dealing with uncertainties in demand, according to Walsh.

"If we have a king cake left over on one day, we use it to make king cake bread pudding the next," she said. "It's delicious."

Many new varieties, fillings

To meet the production schedule, bakeries like Antoine's and Gambino's take on seasonal workers to ensure they can fulfill the required capacity.

"We might add a few dozen extra workers during king cake season," Scelfo said. "Some of them are people who have worked with us in the past and some are new, but we train them all."

The popularity of various styles of cakes seems to vary widely but in recent years the bakeries say that filled cakes have been the biggest seller. In fact, it was his customers' quandary over which filling to choose that led Greg Antoine to develop his "queen cake" in 1997.

"Our customers would come in and have a hard time picking out a king cake because everyone in their family had a different flavor filling that they liked," he said. "So that's when we started making the queen cakes with five fillings. The cakes are marked on the top so you know what flavor filling you're going to get when you cut into the cake. That way nobody had to compromise."

Scelfo also says that filled cakes are the sales leaders, hands down.

"In fact, we only get about two or three requests a year for the old-fashioned kind of cakes that are brioche with sugar on top. We make them for anyone who wants it, but there just isn't a demand," Scelfo said.

Jamie Santopadre of Tastee Donuts might disagree. She and her husband acquired the McKenzie's recipes some years ago and they sell the McKenzie's-style king cakes at their seven shops. A baked brioche, the cakes are topped only with colored sugar and, according to Internet blogs debating the merits of various styles, seem to be a favorite among traditionalists.

The old standbys

At Antoine's the owner says that his traditional cake is probably his most popular cake too, but his version has icing and not just sugar on top.

"When I was a kid I hated having to bite into king cake with granulated sugar on top, so we do our cakes differently," he said. "Some bakeries put icing on top and then colored sugar on top of the icing. But we drizzle colored icing on top of the white icing instead of using the sugar. Customers tell me 'We like the way y'all do it' because they never liked the sugar on top either and used to scrape it off."

The cake at Laurel Street Bakery is on the simpler end of the spectrum and customers seem to like it that way. It's a braided cinnamon roll dough with icing and colored sugar on top, but without fillings. According to Walsh, the bakery sold out of their cakes on a Wednesday this past week, defying the more typical end-of-the-week trend.

"We only offer one kind of cake and our customers keep coming back for it," said Walsh. "One woman came in to pick one up for a 10:15 meeting and when we told her the cakes wouldn't be out of the oven until 10, she said she'd just wait. She didn't want any other cake."

It's good news that sales of king cakes seem to be recession-proof, considering the importance of the season to the economic well-being of local bakers. Some think that hard financial times even improve king cake sales.

"When there's a lot of uncertainty, people want something they can count on," said Russell Counterman, an Antoine's staff member. "King cakes are comfort food."

Scelfo of Gambino's believes the continued strength of the king cake business is a testament to the enduring nature of local culture and devotion to traditions like Mardi Gras.

"Let's face it," he said. "We're creatures of habit here, and we certainly enjoy a party."